RAVEL: CHANSON MADECASSE (MADAGASCAN SONGS)

MS 5551
MS Short Title RAVEL: CHANSON MADECASSE (MADAGASCAN SONGS)
Text Maurice Ravel: Chansons madécasse (Madagascan songs) no. 3: Il est doux de se coucher durant le chaleur, opening for flute and cello
Description MS in French on paper, Montfort-Amaury, France, 1925-1926, upper part of 1 p 10x29 cm, ruled with 8 staves, notated on 2 staves, autograph, signed.
Context The work is scored for soprano, flute, cello and piano. In the post war years Ravel composed only a work a year due to inferior health, but several of these are among his finest compositions, such as La Valse (1920) and the violin sonata (1927).
Provenance Sotheby's 28 May 2015:284

Commentary Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was with Claude Debussy (1862-1918) foremost associated with Impressionist music, a controversial term, which both composers disliked. He was influenced by Arnold Schönberg's abandonment of conventional tonality, and Ravel admitted he could not have written Chansons madécasses without the inspiration from Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire. The text by Evariste-Désiré de Parny (1753-1814) is about a man in Madagascar resting in the shadow under a tree waiting for the evening breeze so he can command the women to dance.
Published Paris: Durand & Cie, 1926
Place of origin Montfort-Amaury, France
Dates 1925-1926 AD